Michelle Williams Makes Frumpy Look Fantastic

Michelle Williams is so ridiculously gorgeous, she can make anything look good -- even a long, frumpy, cotton pioneer dress and bonnet. Nominated for Best Actress in Blue Valentine (due out on DVD and Blu-ray May 10), Williams is now starring in the critically acclaimed Meek's Cutoff, a movie about settlers travelling through the Oregon desert in 1845. The actors involved in the project had to film in remote locations under less-than-ideal weather conditions wearing period costumes -- yet, Williams found an upside to what she called the "ingenious dresses":

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They actually do keep you quite cool, because they're cotton, and they also provide cover. Privacy is important to women, and when you're on the trail like that, so little is afforded. But with the dress, you can actually go to the bathroom in private. It provides an incredible shield. You could literally be in a conversation with somebody and just sort of drop down … I can't believe I'm talking about this.

Privacy is likely something the Williams places tremendous value on, especially given how much she's been hounded by the press after the death of Heath Ledger, the father of her daughter, Matilda.

Of course, it doesn't matter what Williams wears, the critics still adore her. For example, Betsy Shakey, writing for the Los Angeles Times, bestowed this praise: "In Emily, the movie's quiet force, Williams adds another to a string of distinctive characters and fine performances ..."

Most fans would agree this praise is well-deserved; after all, Williams has proved time and time again she has beauty and talent. Here, she describes to Austin 360how much acting means to her:

When I'm working, I feel my brain switch on in a different way ... The hairs on your skin stand up. Your eyes are a little bit sharper. And everything starts to mean something and things that you sort of take for granted, or you don't really see because you're in the haze of day-to-day life running around, all of a sudden, everything has extra meaning. I'd like to be in that heightened state all the time -- having extra intention.

Perhaps it's this intensity and thoughtfulness that makes Williams, as Matthew Odam writing for Austin 360 said, "one of the best actors working today."

Oh, and of course it doesn't hurt that she's astoundingly stunning, too.